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It’s time to look at a game that could go down in history as the greatest of them all. That may sound like hyperbole, but at the moment the Super Smash Bros Wii U title currently holds that spot so it’s not unreasonable to imagine a world where this one surpasses it. I’ve been hyped for this game for many months now. A new Super Smash Bros title always brings with it a certain level of expectations like that and even more so for this one since it was touted as being the ultimate Smash title. It’s effectively an upgraded port of the Wii U game while bringing in all of the previous characters and most of the stages. I’ve already put in close to 50 hours here and that number’s only going to keep on rising.

First off lets talk about the gameplay even though by now it is fairly iconic. The goal of the game is to get the opponent’s damage% up. The higher it is the farther they will be launched when you attack them. Once you’ve knocked the opponent off the stage entirely they lose a life. Once you’ve taken all of their lives away the match is over and you will have claimed victory. While the goal is simple, it’s still a fairly complicated game. I imagine that if this is your first Smash title that you’ll have a pretty steep learning curve at first. Nevertheless you’ll definitely get the hang of it.

Multiplayer is definitely where you’ll spend the most time in this game. The battles are legendary here and with over 70 playable characters and 100+ stages you can keep the matches feeling fresh the whole time. Online definitely helps the replay value even further if you have no friends. Fortunately even just fighting the computers can present a really nice challenge. There are certainly some online issues you will want to be aware of though. Currently the match settings allow you a preference but you can still be sent into types that you did not ask for. If that happens watch out because it will still affect your GSP which is effectively your online rank. I wouldn’t get too attached to it though because that may make you afraid to keep on playing when you see your score go down. It’ll definitely go up and down as you go through more matches, but the important thing is watching your skills improve which won’t happen if you are too nervous the whole time. What you should be most excited about is the fact that this will ensure you fight tougher and tougher opponents as you get better.

Meanwhile there are a ton of other modes to play. While we sadly don’t see the return of a story mode like what Brawl had, we do get a new adventure mode which is similar to Melee’s in the sense that there is a basic story but not too many cutscenes. You are placed in a large overhead map where you have to get to the end. You do this by freeing all of the fighters who have been possessed by the cosmic being. Each fight you go through has some kind of gimmick or element that makes it unique. These can be quite challenging for a new player so I recommend taking a look at the spirits. They will help you overcome these battles but they can be a little overwhelming at times so take it slow.

There’s also the Spirit Board mode which lets you get new spirits by completing more event battles. It’s basically the same as Adventure Mode but without the story behind it. There are over 1200 spirits in the game so this should definitely help you get a lot of play time in. The actual story is around 10-11 hours if you rush it and to 100% the story you’ll probably need more like 20 hours. There are also a few other single player modes like All Star and 100 Man Brawl. You fight hordes of enemies in this mode and see how quickly you are able to finish them off. The single player options are a little more limited than in past options, but compared to the average game it is still a ton of content. As mentioned, most of your time will probably be spent in multiplayer mode anyway.

As expected the graphics are absolutely top notch here. Everything looks really clear and pristine. It’s all so colorful and amazing. A lot of things are always happening on screen at once but you’ll never feel lost. Super Smash always shows up as the best looking Nintendo game on each console and the Switch looks like it won’t be an exception. You’ll be hard pressed to find any game that looks better than this one. The soundtrack is also extremely impressive as there are over 800 songs to be found. I think its safe to say that this game easily has the best ost of all time. There are just so many songs to choose from. You’ll start out with most of them and then you get to unlock the last few hundred. I will add that I think the developers did a good job of letting you start out with all the stages and most of the music while leaving all the characters to be unlocked. The challenger approaching screen has always been one of the most enjoyable parts of the game after all.

Between all the spirits and gameplay this title has unlimited replay value. At the time of writing this review I currently have 4 challenges left to complete. I expect to have those done by the end of the week. I’ll certainly still keep on playing this title daily but I guess it may be time to tag in another title. It won’t have much time before the Christmas batch gets in though which is why I’m still pretty undecided on how to go about that. Ah well, I’ll have time.

I guess the question you may be asking now is..why hasn’t this game passed the Wii U one yet? We can ignore all of the modes and just get to the gameplay because that’s the deciding factor when it comes to Smash. This game series is in a league of its own to the point where all modes are thrown to the wayside in favor of the gameplay. Whoever has the best gameplay wins, it’s that simple. Smash 4 prioritized combos over everything else. Once you learned each character’s combos you would try to get in place to land them. It made you have to learn how to study everything and get into position. In comparison, Smash Ultimate is all about the neutral game. Attacking is now prioritized over defense, but most hits don’t combo into other moves so you simply have to keep out thinking your opponent until you land enough hits for the win.

This results in both players throwing out quite a lot of attacks as most of them are safe now. As someone who likes playing aggressively this is definitely a lot of fun. It’s really tough to fight against though as it can sometimes feel like there are no openings (Especially when fighting a quick ranged character like Roy) but there will always be one somewhere. It’ll take some getting used to. I do think eventually this game will likely surpass the Wii U one, but I don’t think it’ll happen for a little while. I put in over 2200 hours into Super Smash Bros Wii U so it makes sense that I can’t drop it so quickly. I also just prefer doing a lot of fancy combos to the one hit moves but again, I think that’ll change.

I really have no meaningful negatives about the game at all. As mentioned, the online is definitely lacking at present. You’re thrown into matches that you didn’t want and there is no way to team up with a friend locally against other friends online. Hopefully they will be able to resolve that as well as adding in other features like stage morphing and Squad Strike. The latter is something I had been particularly looking forward to in the game so it was a shame to see that it is offline only. In the meantime I’ve had fun growing my GSP with the characters. I got most of them to over a million with my only elite fighters currently being Bayonetta, Marth, Lucina, and Pac-Man. Naturally they are also my 4 mains at the moment since I figure I’ll let the game help me decide that. Usually I end up maining a bunch of characters so this will help me whittle that list down a bit.
Meanwhile I should also talk a bit about some of the new items and assists. For the items, my favorite new weapon is probably the Death Scythe. I believe if you hit someone with it when they are over 100% they will instantly lose a stock which is cool. Likewise, I like the Rage Blaster for its similar function although in this case it gets stronger as you grow weaker. The banana gun is also a fun weapon that may not be super powerful or anything, but it’s just a great concept. I think unlike the characters and stages we did lose a lot of items over the years, but I guess it makes sense not to make the list too huge or you’ll never see some items.

For the Assists, we finally have Knuckles! Along with the fact that most assist trophies can now be destroyed they feel more like pseudo fighters than ever. Some are incredibly flashy as well like the Moon from Majora’s Mask. I can see how fans get a little upset when their fighters shows up as an assist, but never lose hope. All they need is a patch at some point and the character can be playable at any moment. For the Pokemon we also have Solgaleo who is one of the strongest creatures in the game. It’s very hard to dodge his fire charges while avoiding the other players. In general I think the game has heavily buffed these assists so now most of them are lethal. That’s a good thing as it is a lot more rewarding to grab them. Don’t worry, you’ve still got the trolls like Goldeen.

Finally, lets talk about the newcomers. First off we have echos which is the official term used by the game for the clone characters. This was a great way to bolster the character size with requested characters who are similar to their main counterparts. Two very good ones are Dark Samus and Ken. These echos have some slight differences from their main counterparts while being similar enough where you can easily use both versions. My only regret is that we didn’t get more echos. I think this could be a landmine of cash for the company if they reconsider their stance. Imagine having over 50 echos in the game? I’d certainly break out the cash for them.

Then we have the full blown newcomers. One has gotten a lot of hype and naturally that is Ridley. After Project M was able to get him into the game Sakurai had no more excuses so he relented and allowed him to join the party. His moveset is a blast. He may be pretty heavy so getting stuck in repeated attacks will happen, but his massive power is a good counter to that. The game seemed to like adding heavyweights as we also have King K Rool. He’s an iconic DK villain who also looks pretty good. His moveset is pretty fun and you won’t want to underestimate him in the ring.

Repping the newer Splatoon is Inkling. She’s a speed character who is looking incredibly good, but also very complex. I think once players master her various ink gimmicks she will be even more of a force to be reckoned with. With Bayonetta being severely nerfed it will be tough for any character to stop this squid kid’s reign of terror. As a surprising addition we also have Simon and Richter from Castlevania. They are as annoying to fight as you can imagine with their projectile spam being even tougher to get around than Link’s. They’re fun to play as though. Isabelle feels like an echo but is actually treated as a full character. She’s a nice alternative to Villager and her fishing rod is a fun attack to use. It’s pretty hard to avoid when you’re on the ledge.

Finally we have Incineroar. He’s a pretty tough boxing Pokemon who has a lot of power and a pretty cool revenge mechanic. With it he can deal massive damage with a single blow. All in all, I’m pretty happy with our new characters so far. It’s hard to be upset when we already have so many options to choose from. The characters all have their fans for sure. While I would have liked some other characters to make the cut as well like Isaac and Waluigi, maybe DLC is their chance. The first 2 DLC characters we know of are Piranha Plant and Joker. They will definitely be great additions as well with the latter especially being very exciting. I can’t wait to play as him, I’m thinking that his moveset is going to be amazing. With that said though, while the new characters are super cool for now I’m still going for the wins with my classic Marth.
Overall, Super Smash Bros Ultimate is indeed the ultimate experience for Super Smash fans in terms of content. It’s got just about everything here. While we had to say goodbye to some fan favorite modes like Target Attack and Home Run Contest, I wouldn’t be surprised if those are added in at a later date. With how patches come into play nowadays you wouldn’t want to rule such things out. We also have more characters and stages coming through DLC as well so this game is going to stay active for a very long time. If you’re afraid of getting into the series because of the high learning curve, I’d say not to worry about it. We all have to start somewhere and you’ll definitely be having a blast before long.

I have finally conquered Survival Mode on Hell (Now known as Extreme) difficulty! Man that took a while. It’s 100 rounds against powerful A.I. opponents who read your every move. I used the famous Ken Shoryuken trick to pull it off but just barely managed to win by the skin of my teeth. It really makes me appreciate Sony’s auto snapshot feature as I quickly grabbed the clip and trimmed it to just the last fight which I have posted below. I’m not sure if I’ll want to try that again anytime soon, but it really feels like a great accomplishment!

I completed Story Mode! So, it was a pretty fun adventure. I’ll give Capcom some kudos for making it a decently long adventure with around 50 fights and a lot of cutscenes. Some characters like Chun-Li and Cammy looked pretty bad though so their fans likely won’t be too thrilled. They were losing left and right to just about everyone. People who like all of the villains will be happy though as they all looked very powerful. To an extent, you could say that the villains outclassed the heroes for the most part. Ryu, Ken, and Dhalsim are really the only ones who can fight without fear. Every character got to fight at least once here including a lot of characters who aren’t even playable. Who knows, maybe they’ll all be added to the game at some point, but most likely this is the end of the road for Peter and the Dolls. Hopefully season 2 will bring with it another big story arc in addition to the extra characters. I may be out of fight money then, but it’ll still be hype. If you haven’t downloaded this 16 gigabyte update, I highly recommend doing so!

I remember seeing this game in Gamestop many years ago. I tried to buy the game, but the store told me that they couldn’t find the disc which ended the dream before it could even begin. When I won a contest I knew that this game would have to be one of my purchases. You can’t call yourself a fighting game fan if you have not played the legendary Street Fighter Alpha series. This way you get to play them all in one shot. The collection brings all of the Alpha games plus special versions of each title and even a little chibi crossover title. This is a must buy collection.

There isn’t much of a plot in the games since they came out so long ago. The characters do get openings and endings in their Arcade stories so you don’t need to worry about that. Of course, it is always a very basic plot and you have to connect the dots on your own. The wiki is good for learning about the extended versions of each story though. If you are puzzled about anything, just quickly head on over and be illuminated as to what actually happened. I definitely give the games props for actually having a story. Some games like King of Fighters don’t even try to give you an actual plot. Moreover, the plots in Alpha are actually engaging unlike titles like AquaPazza.

After playing Street Fighter V, it is very odd to play the Alpha games. The gameplay is dramatically different and it will take some getting used too. Once you get into it though, it really starts to be a blast. The gameplay is the real draw of this game so you’ll want a friend to play it with. If not, just fighting the computer for a few hours should be very nostalgic for long time Street Fighter fans. It is especially appropriate right now since the Alpha games basically serve as prequels to the Street Fighter V title.

Birdie, Rainbow Mika, and Karin are among the other characters from Street Fighter V who originated in these games. It’s certainly fun to see these classic versions of the characters and even favorite characters like Ryu and Ken certainly look a lot younger here. It is fun to see how the characters have actually aged along during the years. It gives the series a sense of realism…the good kind. Of course, I will be upset if it ever goes too far and whole characters are taken out because of the time gap like in Soul Calibur. After a certain point, the characters should definitely stop aging.

Graphically, Alpha 1 hasn’t aged all that well. The sprites look ancient and a lot older than I would have expected. By Alpha 3, the game looks a lot more polished like I had expected from the start. The attacks are all fun and the game is very bright so the stages really stand out. The soundtrack for this collection is excellent as well. You’ll be hearing a lot of iconic themes that have become famous over the years and this was before all of the big remixes so these are the themes are they were meant to be. Of course, a good remix can go a long way. Ryu’s theme in Street Fighter V is actually the best one that he has ever had.

Super Gem Fighter is the bonus game that came along with the Alpha titles. Unfortunately, I have to say that it is really not that good. The game tries to go for a party/fighting game mix that doesn’t go over well. If you want a game that is able to achieve both goals, just head on to Super Smash Bros Brawl. The gameplay just doesn’t make any sense and you’ll be struggling to do anything for quite a while. Seriously, button mashing won’t cut it this time and even when you stop to learn the controls it will still be hazy. I can safely say that I won’t be revisiting Gem Fighter anytime soon. It’s just not worth it, but no matter, the Alpha games are ultimately why you are here.

There is a lot of replay value to be found in this collection as you might expect. The multiplayer modes alone can last you an unlimited amount of time in theory. Beating the game with every character in every game should also take you a while. If you try to unlock all of the bonus games, that will help extend the replay value as well. There are even complex methods that you can use to unlock many other fighters. That may be worth a look if you’re a really big Akuma fan. I haven’t really messed around with it yet, but one of the secret games is Hyper Street Fighter Alpha which is like a crossover of the various Alpha games. You can have Alpha 1 Ryu fight Alpha 3 Ryu for example. I love the concept behind this and I would love to see something similar for Super Smash someday. Imagine having Melee Fox face off against Brawl Meta Knight or something like that. The gameplay mechanics may make this tricky, but I’m sure that it must be achievable. Surely such a thing could not be impossible right?

Even though this is a collection there is not much else to say about this title since there isn’t really a plot. In the end, the only way you won’t like this game is if you just aren’t a big Street Fighter fan. If you like how the series plays, then you’ll definitely like this game. Naturally, I recommend Alpha 3 the most. It’s the most modern so you can really get into the swing of things there. I can proudly say that I basically own every big console Street Fighter game at this point so that’s a nice milestone. It is definitely the best (non Super Smash) fighting game series and it is easy to see why it became a household name. I don’t see the Street Fighter franchise dying out anytime soon.

Overall, If you like fighting games then this should be like a dream come true for you. You’re getting 3 complete games along with extra versions and a nice little minigame that isn’t fun, but it’s still something I suppose. The price isn’t even that bad anymore. You’ll probably be able to buy it for like 15-20 at this point or maybe even less depending on where you look. I’ll admit that it is old though so I have more fun playing on the newer titles like Street Fighter V, but I’m always up for a round here. Good gameplay can never age badly. It’s also quite cool how Ryu basically hasn’t changed at all. His moves are still the same in SF V as in Alpha and it’s probably been at least a decade between these titles.

Sorry guys, no real stats in this game, but I still have to upload the post as a formality. No worries, I’ll still drop some knowledge on you here. Super Smash Bros vs Capcom is inevitable and once it hits, it could very well be the 2nd greatest game of all time provided that there is a big cinematic story mode.

Capcom Fighting Evolution is definitely an obscure Capcom crossover. I may have seen the cover once or twice back in the day, but only briefly and I instantly forgot about it. Some of the roster decisions for this game were very odd, but I’m still surprised that it is not more popular. It’s a fun enough game although there is nothing really unique about this title. It just fills the bill as a fighting game and doesn’t try to do anything more with itself.

There is no story mode of course although every character does have an ending which is great. That’s something I used to take for granted in a fighting game, but with some titles not bothering with it anymore, it is fun to see. There are no openings for the characters, but I’ll settle for the endings. This game uses a tag team system so the beauty of this is that you unlock both endings for every time you do Arcade Mode. It allows you to see all of the endings a lot quicker than you would have otherwise.

Normally this is the part where I’d say that there is pretty much no replay value, but Arcade Mode is typically the only thing you expect from a fighting game. That’s still not a great excuse, but multiplayer mode is where you’ll find the replay value at. Find someone to play this with and you’ll have a blast picking from the various characters. The series that are represented here are Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter II, Street Fighter III, Red Earth, and Darkstalkers. I have to say that it is a little iffy to have Street Fighter represented three times. Especially when there is one big Capcom franchise left out here. Need I mention which one? The Mega Man franchise!

Capcom has a very bad track record of leaving this franchise out to dry whenever they come out with a big crossover. Mega Man’s absence in Marvel vs Capcom 3 speaks volumes and the fact that Mega Man Volnutt/Trigger made it into Tatsunoko vs Capcom over the other Megamen is also odd. It’s a shame because a Mega Man rep being in the game would have guaranteed 3 more since each franchise got a full block of fighters. Yes, this is definitely a pretty big missed opportunity if you ask me. Another odd character exclusion is Morrigan from Darkstalkers. She’s the face of the franchise and yet she was skipped over. It’s very strange to say the least. I can’t say that I’m a fan of hers at all, but she still beats Felicia, who somehow got to be playable in this one. Also, what about Ken from Street Fighter? Surely he deserved a spot here given his iconic status.

There is also an original character for this game. The mysterious Ingrid, whose abilities are quite lethal. She seems to be a cosmic being who may be above all of these street level fighters, but we’ll need some more appearances to prove that she’s not just all talk. This character does have a lot of potential though and her powers are a lot of fun. We can always use more magical fighters even if they can be a little hard to control at times.

This is a retro fighting game that uses sprites so it is hard to really say how the graphics are. The character models are essentially ripped straight from the respective titles. The models all look pretty good, but they aren’t exactly new either. You won’t really be looking at the sprites much while you’re fighting either since you’ll need your full concentration. Regardless, the graphics definitely aren’t bad. I’d say that they’re totally standard and are up to snuff for this fighting game.

As for the soundtrack, it is good. It’s always fun to hear the Street Fighter themes although the Darktalker/Red Earth ones were very forgettable. In a way, it’s probably good that Street Fighter counted as three different series since it meant that we got more themes from those series although, once again…Mega Man themes would have been beyond hype. Those are the themes that we deserved. Still, the music works for the fighting.

I totally skipped over the actual gameplay angle, but I assume that everyone knows how this plays when I mention the words “Street Fighter” This is a 2D fighting game that is very bread and butter. You can kick, punch, and mix those attacks for various combos and super attacks. Yeah, that’s really all there is too it. This game uses the 2 vs 2 system, which is a blast since I always liked that way to play. My personal favorite is when you don’t die until both of your fighters are gone like Marvel vs Capcom, but any kind of tag team play is still pretty neat. I’m waiting for Super Smash Bros to implement something like that. Now that would be really awesome! Seriously, Super Smash needs to get on that!

Overall, Capcom Fighting Evolution is a fun fighting game. If I was a more dedicated Street Fighter fan then I may be upset at the wasted potential that is here. The character roster is very small and there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put behind the gameplay. The American cover is also pretty sketchy, but that’s more of a nitpick than anything else. It’s really just your standard Street Fighter game with a few broken guest stars. The big dinosaur feels so out of place, but I suppose that’s part of the appeal. It’s like having Sentinel in Marvel vs Capcom 3. It’s hilarious just how big he is. If you like Capcom then I definitely recommend getting it. It may not be fancy, but this is still a crossover. You’re bound to have some fun with it.

With Street Fighter V out, I decided that it was time to actually get into the Street Fighter franchise. It has always looked like an epic franchise, but SF IV is the only game that I had played. Well, that’s all changed with Ex 3 and I also bought the Alpha collection as a nice backdrop for after this title at some point. Ex 3 feels like the good ole Arcade Style of the olden days and it works really well here with one of the best Arcade Modes of all time.

Unfortunately, there is no real story here. Usually Arcade Mode has a nice opening and an ending, but that isn’t the case this time. There is a small block of text for each character upon beating the game, but that’s all. No rival cutscene and no opening makes this a standard fight the CPU mode. Luckily, that’s where the cool design comes into play. The first battle is always a 3 vs 1 fight. Let that sink in a bit since it’s rare to see this in a Street Fighter title. It’s a blast! You then grab one of your defeated foes as an ally and rinse and repeat as you go through the mode in other formats like 2 vs 2 and 2 vs 1. Finally, you go up against Bison in the ultimate battle as it’s 4 vs 1. I have to say that it would feel pretty bad to lose to him with the odds so heavily stacked in your favor. It does make the fight that much more epic though.

There are 27 fighters in the game, which is definitely an impressive amount. Oddly enough, it seems like over half of the characters (Or roughly half) are made up for the Ex series. You can tell because while their designs may have some slight personality, they feel a little generic. One character is literally called Area and some of the others have names that may sound eccentric, but probably didn’t have a lot of thought behind them. The characters were quickly just created and thrown into the game. Most of them at least seem to have fairly good controls and combos so there’s always that. I like the two Superhero/Supervillain character combo. Those guys are definitely a blast.

The actual gameplay is what you would expect to find in a Street Fighter game. It’s 2D and you have to punch and kick your opponent until his/her health bar goes all the way down. There are a lot of combos that you can work towards completing and you can learn them in the trials/training mode. More on that in a moment. Street Fighter basically invented the term “Button Masher” so you can still do pretty well against the computer is you just keep on pressing buttons. Due to the retro feel of the game, it feels like you can move very fast and fluidly. I also can’t forget to mention how the team function is so fun. You can switch out and pull off a devastating team combo before your partner leaves. It’s also risky if your partner gets hit in the crossfire though because you’re then taking roughly double damage for each hit. So, watch out, but it adds another layer to the game. The Arcade Feeling is cemented in the game and that’s definitely a good thing.

Back to the Trials Mode. This mode has you pull off combos and challenges so that you can gather EXP to unlock new attacks with. They can then be used on your original fighter so you can give him your personal 4 best special abilities. Imagine having Zangief’s Cyclone and Ryu’s Shoryuken. The possibilities are endless so your fighter will be very tough by the end. I did a lot of the challenges for fun, but they do get really difficult later on and without any actual prize besides buying abilities for a character that I’ll never use…there’s not much else to do there. Before going to multiplayer mode, you’ll just want to make sure that you have all of the characters. Beating the game 10 times will get you the 10 normal unlockable characters, but you have to beat it 8 times as Ryu and 8 times as Bison to get their true forms. They’re really like glorified alt costumes, but you’ll still want to have them unlocked for parties.

The true replay value as always is simply playing the multiplayer mode with friends. There are enough characters so that you won’t ever have to get bored. Whenever you want a break from Ryu, try out Bison for a bit and then go back to Ryu. Evil Ryu and Bison 2 are secret characters, which also shake things up although they are not quite as intense as they will be in future installments.

The graphics are a little more pixelated than you may have assumed, but it does help that retro vibe. It’s also interesting to see the characters use their moves from SF V. It shows how true to its history Street Fighter has stayed over the years. Just about every combo in SF V is still around here even if it’s no longer a true combo or the attack may have become less effective. The final stage in particular looks great and I’m sure that a lot of effort was put into that one.

As for the soundtrack, it works fairly well. Once again, I’ll give a shoutout to the final stage for that. Beyond that level, the themes are a little more forgettable than your average Street Fighter game. It’s a good soundtrack while you’re playing, but you probably won’t remember it quite as vividly as you would for a title like Street Fighter V. I haven’t played that game in a while and I can still recall all of the big themes. Still, Street Fighter can’t knock it out of the park every time.

In case you’re curious, this game still loses to Street Fighter IV and V. It’s a blast of course, but those games are simply too good. I also have my doubts on whether or not it’ll be able to beat the Alpha games. It probably beats the original though (I played the mobile version) so there’s always that. Getting another Ex game someday would be a blast. Bringing back that team angle would make for some fun tournies!

Overall, Street Fighter Ex 3 is a complete success in my book. I know that reviews for the game weren’t quite as positive as the others, but it shows what a high standard Street Fighter games have set for the franchise. I’d still say that Ex 3 isn’t just a good game, but a great one. It really forces you to put on your nostalgia goggles and the gameplay has aged very well over the years. You can just pop it in the console and play it at any time and you’ll have as much fun as someone who played it when it first came out on March 4th in the year 2000. If you don’t own this forgotten Street Fighter game yet, then I highly recommend goinng out there and getting it ASAP!

Ah, this game is so controversial. Capcom basically made headlines with this game in every way possible. I was unsure about pre ordering this title since there are always remasters and such so I could potentially wait a year and get the game for the same price, but with more characters. That being said, I wanted to get into the hype right away and see the game as the meta was evolving like with Super Smash. I’ll never get into this game professionally and I’m content with being a casual, but getting it day 1 was fun. Especially since I don’t get games day 1 all that often. This was due to winning a Football Fantasy League (Along with Pre Orders for Pokken and Star Fox Zero. If I win again next year, it may go towards Kingdom Hearts III and FF VII depending on when they come out and if something else that’s even bigger isn’t on the way)

This is Street Fighter so I don’t really need to explain the gameplay right? It’s about as iconic as Mario or Sonic at this point and dare I say even more than Sonic? Next to Pac Man and Mario, I’d say that Street Fighter is the most popular game of all time. You can quote me on that one. If you want to get more technical, this Street Fighter game is different from the previous ones in the sense that it’s more about mind games. The health bars are more like Tekken in the sense that each hit deals massive amounts of damage so you’ll want to be very careful about attacking. You have to take risks in this addition and that’s part of what makes the game fun. It’s the kind of game where you can definitely picture yourself beating a pro and I have to admit that the balance is spot on. A relatively new thing is the introduction of the V Gauge. I only say that it’s sorta new since the idea of a final smash gauge isn’t new, but you can do reversals with this. Either way, you get the point about the gameplay.

Let’s go to some of the controversies. First is the censorship one. That’s easy since I definitely agree with the move. Cammy’s win celebration was toned down and likewise with R. Mika. I heard that Zangief’s was as well, although nobody ever mentions it so it’s possible that this isn’t the case or that nobody cared. It was a good move because these things weren’t necessary to the game. In fact, it’s a little disappointing to see how over the top the females were designed in this game. It almost goes to Dead Or Alive (Not the spinoffs, now that’s terrible!) levels here at times. Laura is very over the top and her introduction is really unnecessarily bad. This has never really been an issue with Street Fighter before so hopefully this isn’t a trend that sticks around for long. I doubt that I would have mained Laura anyway, but it definitely assures that I’ll stick with Ken and Chun-Li for the long haul. Either way, everyone has combos in this game so aside from a character like Zangief or F.A.N.G. they’re all good.

The next controversy is the fact that Capcom basically shipped out a 60$ beta. I made a topic on it over on Street Fighter Faqs and it was so inflammatory that it was taken down. You need to have PS+ to play online so let’s ignore that for now. Without that mode, you really only have 2 options. Survival Mode and Story Mode. Let that sink in for a little bit, there is nothing else to really do in the game. I know people like to spend time in Training Mode, but I find that boring to be honest and would rather train against a computer or play someone. Story Mode consists of 2-4 fights per character and you can beat all of the stories within 90-120 minutes. After that, it’s just Survival Mode and that’s not the kind of mode that you usually want to play for very long.

Survival Mode on Easy is very doable. It’s only 10 matches long and you should be able to beat it with everyone without any kind of struggle. Normal Mode gets very difficult as the first 25 matches are super easy, but then the difficulty ramps up to Hard Mode for the final 2 fights. It’s always very annoying to make it to the very end only to lose. Hard Mode is 50 fights and once again it’s easy until the very end where you’ll lose at the final level. I’ve only beaten this difficulty with Ken so far. After that is Hell Mode, which is an incredible 100 levels. I made it to the 70’s I believe, but it’s so time consuming that I’m definitely not tempted to give it another whirl anytime soon.

So, when you keep that in mind, you’re paying 60 dollars for what will amount to around 4 hours of fun gameplay and then you’re stuck unless you really like Survival Mode. Survival Mode is unique in the sense that you can spend your score to buy things like extra health or power, but it also makes the mode a lot longer as it needs to load between every match and it’s why the longer difficulties can be over an hour long. This game is really meant to be played for local versus mode and online. I can’t fault the gameplay so it succeeds there, but there is no excuse to not have other modes like Arcade or Trials.

A disclaimer is the fact that they are all coming for free soon. It’s just obvious that the game was released way before it was ready. What would probably get an easy 9 is definitely bumped down to an 8 for me. I may update the score with a brief update post at the end of this once more updates are here, but the question is…was it worth it to release the game this early? I’m going to say yes to be honest since I’m still glad that I got to play the game right away, but I can definitely see both sides. Some things are inexcusable like the long loading times and the fact that there is no penalty for rage quitting. That’s really bad and has been hurting a lot of people in the higher ranks.

The soundtrack is great and an easy 5/5. All of the themes are inspirational and they get you in the mood for some good fights. I have no qualms there. The stage selection is really small and I would have liked some more maps. I barely even notice them to be honest, but some are clearly better than others and more variety is never a bad thing. I don’t see why the game has no more maps unless….it’s going to be for DLC! The graphics are also very solid. I’m definitely not a fan of the character designs and the illustrations in Story Mode can be comically bad at times, but you can tell that a lot of effort went into the game as a whole. The graphics are certainly top notch, but it’s not as visually striking as Super Smash Bros.

Another big issue with the game is naturally the fact that it’s going to be very DLC heavy. There are already 6 DLC characters planned this year along with Premium costumes. The game is expected to be supported for many years to come so it’s actually very likely that we will get at least 20 DLC characters or more by the time this is through. Supposedly there will be no other versions and this original one will always be relevant. Whether that is fully true or not, it is good to know since I wouldn’t buy any new versions. They’ll probably have some updates, but it’ll be in place of buying them separately. I definitely won’t spend any money on SF V, but the good news is that I won’t have too. There’s a new feature here called Fight Money. Every 100,000 that you collect is enough to buy 1 character. I currently have 300000 so I can buy the first 3 and the upcoming modes should be enough for me to earn some more. There’s already enough in Survival Mode to get over 1 Million I believe, but good luck beating Hell Mode with everyone. I’m sure that some people will manage to do it and I’ll be thoroughly impressed, but it’s too time consuming to be worth it to me. Still, the concept of fight money is very progressive and an awesome move on Capcom’s part. This is something that I can get behind.

Also, as mentioned earlier, the online component is very good. It’s heavily sophisticated and I’ll admit that it makes Nintendo’s look bad by comparison. You can look up any player by their tag and then watch every battle that they’ve ever had. So, you want to learn some Ryu combos? No problem, look up the highest ranking Ryu players in the world and just sit back as you take in the matches. I can’t emphasize enough how incredible this feature is. Everything’s out in the open now and there are no restrictions. Naturally, this means that all of you matches can be viewed as well, but it’s a good accountability features. Now if someone claims that you didn’t actually beat them, you can just point to the profile. It’s quite possibly the best new online feature that I’ve ever seen. While waiting for a ranked match, you can also chill out in Survival Mode or Train a little. Everything is connected and the game even tells you if you’re an offensive or defensive player. There are full ranks and tiers as well unlike Super Smash where there sadly isn’t a system like that. I deeply wish that there was and you could bet that I’d be playing a ton of For Glory every day if that was ever implemented. Ah well, it’s how it goes.

As for each individual character, Chun Li’s style is my favorite so far. Unlike Ryu and Ken, I don’t really know most of her specials at the moment, but she gave me the most success online where it counts so that’s definitely a good sign. I also heard that she was one of the better fighters in the game so that helped. In a game like this one, they’re all “One of the better fighters” so it may not be saying a whole lot, but she’s officially my main. My secondary is Ken. He’s just so easy and intuitive to play. I also gained a lot of respect for him in this game as he’s portrayed as a really cool character. I also like the redesign that he got as well as the emphasis on all of his fire moves.

Ryu is a close third and his attacks are tried and true. It’s cool how just about all of his attacks and combos have endured since the original Street Fighter. I don’t care for his personality and how it was depicted here though. Look at SF IV and Super Smash for how he should be acting. I suppose Cammy would be my 4th best character. Like Chun Li she’s really quick and has a lot of good offensive tools to work with. Not to mention that she seems more heroic than most of the fighters in her game and I can get behind her goal of trying to save everyone. 5th place would be Laura. It’s safe to say that I won’t be playing her very much, but her combos and command grabs are really good. If you land the hit, you’re almost guaranteed a grab and that’s a blast against opponents who like to block a lot.

6th is Bison. He’s a little slow for me, which is what hurts him, but he’s very cool. Since Akuma is not in the game, he’s the best villain by far and all of his attacks remind me of Bass EXE, which is really neat. I’m going with Nash next although it’s really close. He’s similar to Ryu, but maybe a little stronger while sacrificing some of Ryu’s safer moves. His final smash is definitely really cool and the teleporting gimmick never gets old. After that would be Karin. She’s a little slower than the other heroines, but her combos are very long and powerful. You can basically link two special attacks into a Critical Art and the laugh at the end of it is certainly classic. I have very little experience with her as most of what I’ve seen is from visual experience rather than hands on.

As a character I can’t stand Birdie, but sadly his controls are actually pretty good. His command grabs are great and they come out of nowhere so your opponent needs to have very fast reflexes to keep up or he’ll be completely overwhelmed. Now we’re getting to the characters that I’m not a big fan of. Mika has a lot of the tools that the others possess, but I just find her hard to use. Likewise, Necalli is strong, but he feels so slow and I haven’t been able to get a hang of his combos. Rashid is the most perplexing character as he feels like he should be very fast and easy to use, but he just isn’t. Dhalsim’s great since you can spam his long range, but he’s incredibly slow and even worse..he’s boring to play as. I don’t care if he becomes top tier, I just can’t play as this guy. Zangief has no projectile which is a huge no no plus he’s a slow character. That’s a lose-lose situation if you ask me. Vega’s just incredibly weak and jumps around too much. F.A.N.G.’s another slow/boring character who I wanted to stop playing immediately. Trust me, he’s not someone that you want to play and I haven’t seen anyone use him yet so I’m guessing that a lot of people feel the same way.
Overall, Street Fighter V is a phenomenal game. I can see why some people already call it the greatest fighting game of all time. I will never say that as Super Smash Bros wins by a long shot, but aside from that?….Yeah, I think this may earn the title. It’s amazing just how well balanced and diverse the characters and their gameplay are considering that there are only 16 at the moment. I could easily play this for hours on end (When the free PS+ weekends are around) and I’m still partially a button masher at this point. It’s just such a fun game and everything about it just reeks of high quality. It’s definitely a very incomplete game at the moment, but if you have PS+ then you’ll barely notice. If you don’t…just play Survival Mode until you can’t take it anymore and then put the game down until March hits with the first new character and a lot of new features.